Refrigerating apparatus



April 13, 1937. N. -M. THOMAS REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 17, 1954 mm mm INVENTOR BYW%. ATTORNEY 45 sections.

Patented Apr. 13,. 1;

T uni-Tao STATES PA-TE NT OFFICE "[.'ffil .5.1:...3? $35, 13:. pplication January 17 1.934, N0. 706,951

This invention relates to mechanical refrigerating apparatus and particularly to the constructlon of a freezing or ice making tray for use in-the cooling unit'of. suchan apparatus.

It is an object of the invention to provide a tray from which a small number of ice cubes may be removed without disturbing the other cubes in the tray.

A further object of the invention is to provide a freezing tray from which any or all-of the cubes may be removed without unduly thawing them. so that practically all of the frozen substance of each cube is available for cooling purposes.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away, showing form of the invention.

Figure 2 is a front elevational'view of the'tray showing one of the sections thereof-inv a p'ositionin which tap'water can be run over that section alone. Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2, showing details of one form oi grid construction improved tray. Referring to the drawing. in indicates generally a freezing tray consisting of three hinged sections Ii, 12,- and these sections is relatively long and 'narrow, and .in employing my invention any number of sections as desired may be used. However, for the purpose of illustration three such sections are shown, each section being hinged to the other as indicated at to V I 0. A looped strap I 6 is provided on the front Q vertical wall ofeach section and each strap has an opening I! extending longitudinally thereof and horizontally with respect to the operating position of the-tray. A pin l8 extends through each of the loops idwhen the tray is filled with water and placed in a refrigerator, whereby to prevent relative motion between the respective The removable grid member is, one of which is provided for each section. of the tray, comprises-in the present instance a single corrugated spring metal strip, and is so constructed and arranged that each corrugation 20' is substantially v-shaped throughout its width. Each end of the grid terminates in a relatively horizontal flange 20 which projects over and beyond the front and rear vertical walls'of eachsectionr'l'he construction of the grid memberv is such that when a freezing tray embodying one which 'may be used in my' 13 respectively. Each of.

provide the complete trayv sections with 7 Claims. (01. eamas) pressure is applied to each of the horizontally extending flanges 2i the grid member I 9 will be flexed upwardly andthereby each of the. triangular shaped blocks of ice formed in the V-shaped depressions of the grid will be loosened.

- In the operation of my device the trayvis assembled as shown in Figure 1 with the pin it extending through each of the loops i6 so as to maintain the three sections ll, l2 and I3 in a line. When the water in the tray has been frozen and only a relatively small number of cubes is desired for immediate 'use the tray is removed from the freezing compartment of the refrigerator and the It provided on the section 13 as indicated in- Figure 2. The section l3 because of its hinged connection with the adjacent section l2 may then be turned about its hinge as indicated in Figure 2. This section' is is then held under running water in order to loosen the ice the side walls of the section. The section inay formed therein jrom pin [8 is removed from the loop then be returned to the dotted line position indi-' cated in this figure and the grid member 19 flexed as previously described so as to loosen each block of ice from the grid.

By theconstruction just described his apparent that it is necessary to run water over only one section of the tray at a time as distinguished from previous structures wherein in order to re- 'move one or more cubes it has been necessary-to run water over the whole tray thereby loosening all the cubes or blocks of ice contained therein. It will also be obvious from the foregoing description that the cubes or blocks in any section may be removed independently of the cubes in any other section. 1

While I have shown and described this speciiic embodiment of my invention it will be apparent that other forms may be adopted all coming within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A freezing receptacle for mechanical refrigerators comprising a tray, formed of a plurality of sections hinged to each other longi-' tudinally of the tray andmeans for maintaining the sections in a line during the freezing operation, said means comprising a loop member attached to each section of the tray and a pin removably inserted through said loops.

2. A rigid freezing tray for mechanical refrigerators, said tray being formed of a plurality of water containing sections pivotally connected to f one another, and means for rigidly connecting the one another to form the rigid tray.

3. A freezing tray for mechanical refrigerators,

said tray being formed of a plurality of water containing sections hingedly connected to one another, a latch element on each of said sections, and a latch element cooperating with the latch elements of the sections for connecting said sections in rigid relationship.

4. A freezingvtray for mechanical refrigerators, said tray being formed of a plurality of long and narrow water containing tray sections with the long sidesthereof disposed in side by side relation, means for hingedly connecting the sections, said means extending longitudinally of the sections, latching means at the narrow ends of the sections, and latching means cooperating with the first latching means for connecting the sections in rigid relationship. 7

5. A freezing tray for mechanical refrigerators, said tray being formed of a plurality of water one another, and means for rigidly connecting the sections with one another to form the rigid tray.

NORMAN M. THOMAS. 

